4

Several hours later when they had gone through the alphabet with different plans on not only keeping Elena out of harms way but defeating Klaus in the process the group of friends sat in content silence for a moment before Matt stood, approached Elena and hugged her close whispering low so only she could hear, "call me if this guy, gets to be too overwhelming, I will come to your rescue." With that and a wink he stepped back and said his goodbyes.

That signaled to everyone else that it was time to get a move on. Elena hugged all her friends and gave forced reassuring smiles to them all, promising to call Caroline and Bonnie at least once a week. Following them to the door Elena waved one last goodbye to her friends as they exited the main door of the Salvatore mansion.

Even though they had spent a good few hours discussing the return of Klaus and Stefan, and how they all planned to ultimately defeat Klaus. Somehow she still felt that none of this mattered, Klaus would find out she didn't die in the ritual as planned, and would kill all the people she loved to get what he wanted, her blood. In order for her to have any chance against him, she was going to have to try the hardest she ever had to gain powers.

When the door shut and Damon heard the final car pulling out of the long driveway he turned to Elena walking slowly, stalking toward her at an amazingly slow pace. He watched her as a predator would watch its prey, "I am going to go upstairs and pack some things we may need, while I'm gone you should go into the kitchen and find whatever food we have that can last in the car for a few days, were heading out as soon as I'm packed. 5 minutes should suffice." And with that he disappeared up the stairs to his room.

Elena moved quickly. As she entered the kitchen she grabbed some of the leftovers from Damon's breakfast feast, and some snacks she knew were kept here for her. A box of her favorite Joe Louis' and knowing Damon, grabbed a box of Twinkies too.

There were several other snack foods that she just grabbed without looking to see what they were, throwing them into a bag. Finally she reached the fridge and grabbed all the bottles of water. She was about to close the fridge when she noticed a blood bag sitting in the door. Thinking quickly she searched around the lower cabinets for the small cooler. Finding it under the sink she went back opened the freezer and grabbed some frozen corn and peas, and ice cubes to keep the blood cold then ran to the basement to grab several blood bags for Damon.

When she returned upstairs he was standing near the island looking into the bags she packed. "not much nutritious food in here sweetheart, who would have thought you could get such a nice figure out of eating chips, two bite brownies and cookies." Elena rolled her eyes and looked at him seriously, was he seriously suggesting this was all she would eat for the next few days? As if he read her mind, "Oh well, I suppose we can stop on the way for your main meals." He smiled when he came across the box of Twinkies, his favorite, then he noticed Elena with the cooler. "What do you have in there?" it was a question and he was quite sure he knew the answer.

" Blood Damon, you know what you need to get that perfect -." Had she seriously been ready to say that, his perfect … ass, eyes, body, … everything, was she insane. She couldn't say that to Damon, he would surely use it against her. Quickly she thought of a word to substitute what she had thought of first "smile of yours. We wouldn't want you feasting on anyone while trying to stay hidden."

Damon shot her a view of that so-called perfect smile, "careful 'Lena that actually started to sound like a compliment." He sped to her side and had her in his arms in less than a heartbeat. Whispering into her ear, "my perfect smile is all thanks to my teeth." He spoke as he gently caressed down her neck with the blunt end of his canines.

Elena recoiled and slapped him on the arm. Shaking her head at him with a slight smile on her face, she always found it so empowering when she slapped him, only him. She walked around him grabbed the bags of food she had grabbed and left him standing in the kitchen. By the time she had reached the front door he was standing there with the door open for her and both their bags in his arm, smirking at her as she walked past him and down the pathway to his Ferrari.

"Oh no, as much as I would love to drive that around, it would stand out a bit too much for my liking. I rented us a car."

Elena looked at him puzzled as he continued, "it's in the garage."

She rolled her eyes and switched directions to head towards the garage as Damon opened the double doors. She looked at him quizzically when she saw what car he had picked, "Really Damon, an Escalade. I never pictured you as the SUV type." He unlocked the car and unceremoniously through the bags in the trunk.

" I picked this because you are going to want to sleep, and since we can't risk stopping for at least a few days I figured this had the most back seat space for you to stretch out in, watch a movie, recline, and cuddle without me having to go too 'super mom' and by a 'stow and go' van."

She smiled at him thankfully then turned placed the groceries into the trunk beside her bag and the cooler on top then got into the passenger seat. They drove in silence for the first few miles while Elena pondered on where he was taking her. Finally curiosity won out and she asked him where they were going.

He shrugged and told her he was just driving, trying to ensure that IF anyone were following them it would be difficult to stay on their trail. When after several hours of very twisting and turning roads and u turns, Elena got board and climbed into the rear seats to have a nap.

She woke late into the night from a nightmare sitting bolt upright in the rear seat of the car. She was cold from the sweat that saturated her shirt. She felt the car come to a stop on the side of the road and Damon turned around to look at her. "I'm fine Damon, just a bad dream" she said as she scanned the trunk for her bag, pulling out a new t-shirt she stripped her top off and put on the new dry one, then climbed back over into the front seat.

Damon was still watching her, when she was seated and belted back up he started the car again and pulled back onto the road. He waited several miles for her to get comfortable and reflect on her dream before he asked her what it was about.

She sat silently for several more moments before answering him, "it was about last night. The way Stefan attacked me." What she didn't tell him was how the dream had finished. She couldn't bring herself to say the words aloud.

The dream had ended with Damon finding her on her floor, picking her up into his arms and laying her onto the bed between his legs holding her close and she held to him with all that she was. She was terrified to let go, while Damon tried his best to stop the bleeding. She abruptly stopped him, gazed up into his eyes and asked him to bite her. No not only to bite her, she realized, she asked him to bite her over where Stefan had, and asked him to take the bad memory away with a pleasurable one she knew he would give her. That was the part of the dream she couldn't tell him, she was far to scared about how he would take her offering him her blood, dream or otherwise.